Dark Side of the Sun
by Assimbya
Summary: AU. What would have happened if no one had believed Van Helsing? What would have been different? What would have been the same? Novella length.


"Dr. Van Helsing, are you mad?" There was only anger in Dr. Jack Seward's tone, not even a hint of shock or confusion. Van Helsing, however, didn't seem to notice this, and sounded merely sad as he replied. "Would I were! Madness were easy to bear compared with truth like this. Oh, my friend, why, think you, did I go so far round, why take so long to tell you so simple a thing? Was it because I hate you and have hated you all my life? Was it because I wished to give you pain? Was it that I wanted, now so late, revenge for that time when you saved my life, and from a fearful death? Ah no!"

Despite this speech, Jack remained unmoved, not in any way convinced. "I saved your life when you still had all your wits in your head! Now you want to desecrate the body of the woman I love, who died tragically after you failed to save her, and you expect to placate me with some ridiculous notion that goes against all laws of science and reason, and you expect me to stand idly by? I'd put you in my asylum myself if I had the courage!"

Van Helsing did seem worried by this time. "Jack, you are a friend more dear to me than you do know, and know you not that what I do is all for the sake of Miss Lucy and you? It is to save the lady's immortal soul that we must do this."

Jack tried to keep his voice steady. "I want you to leave and never let me see your face again. I would prefer if you left England entirely, in fact. I can't listen to this anymore."

There was a long moment of silence as Van Helsing and Jack looked at one another, and then finally Van Helsing turned and left the room. Jack sat down, put his head in his hands, and couldn't help weeping.

Mina sat down on the bed where Jonathan slept. Her smile was sad as she watched him sleep, his expression seeming troubled even now, his whitening hair making him look almost like a different person. She reached out and touched his cheek, as if she was trying to see if she could understand what had changed in him by the feel of his skin. She watched him in sleep for several minutes, wishing that there were some key to understanding these delusions that he had written about. But they were gone now, were they not? All that was past and they were married now, and Jonathan was no longer troubled by such things.

As though in response to her thoughts, however, Jonathan muttered, still sleeping, "I have to find a way to get away from the Count...I don't think I can survive forever like this…"

Mina froze. With the contents of Jonathan's journal still fresh in her mind the meaning of this barely audible statement was clear. The delusions could not be gone, not if Jonathan still _dreamed _about them.

She fought back tears, knowing that crying now would just make things more difficult for Jonathan if he happened to wake up. But she wanted him here with her, her husband, not off in memories that might or might not be real.

As she tried to will away those selfish thoughts, Jonathan woke up. Noticing her worried look, he frowned. "Mina, dear, what's wrong?"

She didn't look directly at him as she spoke. "I read the journal."

Those few words said a great deal, and they were both silent for a long moment. Finally Jonathan said, "Mina, I gave you the journal because I was worried about what could happen to you…if these delusions start again." She took his hand. "What do you mean? Jonathan, you know that I'll do my best to help and take care of you whatever state you're in."

He smiled slightly. "Of course, love, I never doubted that. And you know I would do the same for you." She smiled as well, but his tone became more grave. "But I'm afraid that's not quite what I'm worried about…" He took a deep breath before continuing. "I'm worried that, if the delusions come back…I may, not knowing what was happening, hurt you."

Mina gasped. Part of her mind was saying that no, Jonathan would never hurt her, even if he didn't know what he was doing. But the other, more practical part of her said that of course he could, he could harm anyone in such a state. "But…Jonathan, what can we do?" Jonathan sighed and he looked more weary than ever. "I don't know. I feel like, in case the delusions come back, I should be in a place where I cannot hurt anyone. But I can't think of such a place."

But she could. Sanitariums existed, and one of Lucy's suitors – John Seward, wasn't it? – had run one. But that thought seemed so awful that she was ashamed of thinking it. She stood up abruptly and walked a few steps away from the bed. "Oh, God."

Jonathan stood as well. "Mina?" She didn't look back at him as she spoke. "John Seward, a friend of Lucy's…he owns a sanitarium." She could clearly hear Jonathan's gasp of surprise, but she said nothing to it. Finally he said, "Maybe…maybe that would be the best idea. I could go there, and stay for a while…perhaps this friend of Lucy's could figure out what's causing the delusions. And then I could come home."

She turned around then and grabbed his hands, her voice low as she fought back tears. "No, no, Jonathan, please forget I ever said that, please don't leave, not now…" She was aware of how hysterical she sounded, but she could help it. The idea of him going off to a sanitarium, especially just after they had gotten married, was terrifying.

He put his arms around her, and she did start crying then. After a few moments she could hear him crying as well, and for several minutes they just held one another, both of them wondering if this would be the last chance they would have to do so for a long time.

Finally Jonathan tried to smile at her. "It'll be all right, Mina." She smiled back, though it was a faint one. "Of course it will." She kissed him then, and he kissed her back. For a moment it was as though it really would be all right. When they broke the kiss Jonathan said, whispering. "I love you."

As she began to pull out of his arms, she said with a smile, "I love you too."

She would need to write a letter to Dr. John Seward later.

Jack sighed, putting down the letter from Mrs. Mina Harker after having read it over several times. It was obvious from the contents of the letter that she didn't yet know of Lucy's death, which made the letter rather difficult for him to read. And Mina would have to know eventually of Lucy's death, and it now seemed that he would have to be the one to tell her, which was certainly not a position he wanted to be in.

But he would accept her husband into his asylum. It was his responsibility, and besides, perhaps a new patient was just what he needed to distract himself from the pain of Lucy's death. And of course, it was his responsibility to care for those who needed his aid as a doctor. He began to write a reply to Mina Harker, but decided to quietly arrange that Arthur and Quincey would be there when he met with Jonathan and Mina Harker.

Mina and Jonathan arrived in Jack's study at half past five, as had been arranged. They both looked nervous but resolute, holding one another's hands as though they would never let go, as though everything would be all right as long as they didn't let go. Jack decided that he didn't want to see these two separated ever, even though that separation would obviously have to occur if Jonathan was to stay at the asylum. But Jack got up from his desk and smiled. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Harker."

Mina managed a faint smile in reply. "You can call me Mina. And may I ask who the young men with you are?" She gestured toward Arthur and Quincey. Jonathan said nothing.

"Oh, excuse my rudeness, Mrs. Hark – Mina, this is Lord Arthur Godalming and this gentleman here is Quincey Morris of Texas." Both of the other men gave a nod at Jack's words, though Arthur barely looked up. Mina, however, smiled. "It's wonderful to meet both of you. Lucy's told me so much about all three of you."

There was an awkward silence at this, and all the three men seemed to avoid looking at either each other or Mina. "Is…is there something wrong?" The worry in Mina's tone was evident as she tried to break the silence.

Looking at his friends, Jack saw that Arthur was obviously in no fit state to tell Mina the tragic news, and Quincey didn't seem likely to either. Jack would have to say it. "I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but…Lucy died a few days ago." Jack felt tears coming to his eyes at the mere repetition of it, but suppressed them, partly because he did not wish to cry, not now, not in front of all these people, even if many of them were friends of his, and partly because Mina seemed on the verge of tears herself. Jonathan too looked quite shocked, as though he hadn't quite processed the news yet.

Somehow, though, despite her own sadness, Mina went to Arthur's side when she saw him quietly weeping. Wordlessly, she took his hands in hers and knelt down next to him, seeming to offer him a sort of comfort that none of them had been able to offer Arthur before. She said something to him, so quietly that Jack didn't hear it, and he nodded. She then let go of his hands and went back to her husband. Jack saw that there were tears in her eyes before Jonathan enfolded her in his arms. Quincey put an arm around Arthur's shoulders, and Jack was left the only one alone, trying to contain his own tears even when no one else was even attempting to do so anymore.

This must have gone on for a long time before Jonathan untangled himself from Mina and said, his voice shaking a bit, "I suppose, Dr. Seward, that it's time for me to enter your asylum now." Jack barely managed to get out the correct documents for Jonathan, the thought of the man before him entering his asylum was so far from his mind. He certainly didn't _seem _as though he should be in a mental asylum. But if he and Mina thought that he should be, then Jack would let him stay here, and hopefully it would do him some good. He didn't know many of the details of Jonathan's case, but there had to be something significant there.

As Jack was thinking this, Jonathan took out a small red book, somewhat battered, from his coat. His voice was quiet as he handed it to Jack. "This is my journal from the time when…I began to have delusions. I think that you should read it."

This was an interesting development, and quite helpful. He wished that all his patients kept such journals. But he merely thanked Jonathan, and then, feeling rather inadequate, said something like, "So, if you'd like to say goodbye to Mina now…"

It didn't take much urging. Jonathan went immediately to Mina's side and they took each other's hands, leaning in close to one another. "I promise, Mina, I'll see you again soon." Jonathan said quietly to his wife. "And when we're together again, everything will be all right and we can begin our life as husband and wife as we should be able to, without such fears hanging over our heads."

Mina whispered something too quietly for Jack to hear, and then she leaned in and kissed Jonathan. They broke the kiss after only a few seconds, however, and then Jonathan picked up his bag and went to follow Jack out of the room. Before they left, however, Mina said, her voice surprisingly steady considering the circumstances, "It's been…wonderful to meet all of you. If anyone here wishes to talk to me, for any reason, then you may come to visit me at any time." She then gave them her address, and, without looking behind her, fled from the room.

Jonathan didn't speak another word as Jack led him to the room where he would be staying.

Mina hurried home as quickly as she possibly could, the words spoken in that conversation at Carfax Asylum ringing in ears. Lucy dead…Lucy dead…Lucy dead and Jonathan shut away in a mental asylum by his wish and hers, and her left alone. Poor dear Lucy, with her laughing blue eyes and cheerful smile, dead and buried in the cold earth, never to smile again. Jonathan, who had gone through so much, locked up with screaming maniacs. She unlocked the door to the small house where she and Jonathan now lived, and ran inside, not bothering to lock or indeed to fully close the door. She pulled off her shawl and let it fall to the ground carelessly, something she would never have done otherwise, then collapsed into the nearest chair in the room next to the hallway. She curled up in the chair like a child, wishing that there was someone who could put their arms around her and tell her that it would be all right, that she didn't have to be alone. But she wasn't a child anymore, and Jonathan had gone through more than she had and needed her to be strong. And so no one came as she wept, her head in her hands, for what could have been an hour easily.

And, then she felt a cold hand touch her shoulder.

She panicked slightly as she looked up, her eyes meeting vivid green ones that made her feel as though they were looking through her into her mind, examining every thought, every memory.

The man standing before her was tall, and thin, wearing all black, which contrasted oddly with his skin, which was pale in an almost unearthly manner. His features were sharp, angular. Looking at him in confusion, Mina finally realized why he seemed so familiar to her. He was the man she had seen with Jonathan, the man who had so startled him. She had thought that was the fault of the delusions, but now…

He spoke then. "You left the door open. I took it as an invitation to come in."

She finally found her voice. "Who are you?"

The man laughed, and it was not a pleasant sound. "Ah, Mina, but didn't your husband tell you about me? I'm Count Vlad Dracula."

She gasped, a thousand realizations hitting her at once as she tried to scramble off of the chair. Oh, God, it was true, everything that had happened to Jonathan, this Count really was such a monster as all that, and she had sent Jonathan to the asylum for it, and oh, God, now this Count was coming after her…

But before she could get away, the Count had grabbed her wrists and pulled her back into the chair, holding her down there as she struggled. He leaned in close to her, whispering in her ear, "Now, my dear, I intend to make both you and your beloved husband mine soon enough, and that is an experience that I can make _very _unpleasant for you if you continue fighting me. But, whatever you do, you will end up as mine, and so all this is really quite pointless."

She didn't know completely what his words meant, but they angered her. With a strength that she didn't know she had, she wrenched her wrists away from his grip. "I'll never allow you to do anything to me or Jonathan." She whispered before clambering over the arm of the chair and away from him. But before an instant had passed, she felt both of his hands firm on her shoulders, holding her where she stood. "I'm afraid you don't have much of a choice about that, Mina."

He began moving her hair to one side, his knuckles brushing her neck slightly as he did so in a way that somehow made want more of his touch. Then, before she knew what was happening, his mouth was on her neck and he was planting a kiss there that made her gasp as she really, really, should not have, and then she felt his teeth sinking into her neck and a horrible, piercing pain filling her. She found herself getting dizzier and beginning to fall, as much as she tried to stop it. But he caught her and picked her up, beginning to carry her to the window as a few drops of her blood fell from his mouth onto the carpet. As he began to fly off into the night, her to weak to protest, she thought, halfway between terror and contentment. _Jonathan was right._

The room in the asylum was barely furnished at all, but it was all right, Jonathan supposed. In all honesty, he didn't like it here. He didn't like the fact that Jack Seward had been obliged to lock the door before leaving him in the room. He didn't like the moans and weeping that he could hear from the other rooms. He didn't like being separated from Mina so soon, didn't like picturing her alone in the house that was meant to be for the two of them, not her alone. But he would stay here, for Mina's sake, if for no other reason.

He spent some time just sitting there, wishing he had thought to bring a book with him, when he heard a knocking sound from the wall on his right side, as though someone was rapping their knuckles against it. For a moment he wasn't sure what to do – after all, there were madmen all around him, and despite the fact that he was probably one of them, it wasn't necessarily a good idea to talk to such a people – but then he heard a rasping voice coming from the other side of the wall. "Harker? Jonathan Harker?"

This was so unexpected that it took Jonathan several seconds before he replied. "Yes…yes, that is my name."

He could hear faint, nervous laughter from the other side of the wall. "Good." There was a pause, as if this unknown man – for the voice was most certainly a man's voice – was gathering his thoughts together. When he next spoke, there was an odd urgency in his tone. "The Master has taken her."

Those words were nearly incomprehensible to Jonathan, but somehow he felt a weight of dread settle in his stomach at them. "What do you mean?" He could hear the urgency in the other man's voice mimicked in his, which terrified him somewhat, but he couldn't do anything else.

"Your beloved, he's gone and stolen her away to make her one of _his _beloveds, just like he did with the Doctor's beloved." He could hear the faint laughter again, though it sounded more insane than amused to Jonathan. "You know who he is. He'll be coming soon enough to do the same with you –"

Here the voice from the other side of the wall stopped suddenly, just as Jonathan was becoming desperate to here more. He practically beat against the wall, not knowing or caring how utterly insane he seemed. "Tell me, damn you! What's happening to Mina? What's the Count, damn him, doing? Tell me he won't be coming back to bring back to that awful place! Tell me!"

He could hear the other man's voice again, but this time he was muttering, clearly not talking to Jonathan. "Oh…the Master will be angry that I gave away His purposes…Oh…no more spiders for some time, that's for certain…"

There was clearly no point in talking to him any longer, but Jonathan almost did so, he was so desperate to do something. The Count was hurting Mina, and would come for him soon! All thoughts of what that happened in Transylvania being a mere delusion was instantly gone from his mind. He began to panic, and yell about something, he didn't even know what, only that it involved the Count, and Mina and those awful women who fawned over the Count in that nauseating way, with, oh, God, those fangs…

Jack closed the journal, which he had been reading for quite some time now and only just managed to finish. He knew that he should consider most of what had been written there a part of the delusions that Mina and Jonathan had both mentioned, but there were little details, hardly mentioned things, that reminded him undeniably of everything that had happened with Lucy. It was ridiculous, but he couldn't help but be reminded of the things that Van Helsing had done in a vain attempt to save her – no, Van Helsing had gone mad by the end as well, and if he wasn't careful, he would go mad himself. These similarities were merely coincidences, and he was trying to look for connections where there were none.

He had to stop thinking about Lucy so obsessively. As it was, the only time he wasn't immersed in thoughts of both her rejection of him and her death was when morphine filled his veins, and he was attempting – and failing, if he was honest with himself – to break that addiction.

The details from Jonathan's journal though…what if Van Helsing had known something after all? Jack felt Jonathan's chilling descriptions of the events that he had witnessed – or thought witnessed creep back into his mind. Those demon women who had attacked Jonathan…the one with the yellow hair and blue eyes, like Lucy's…Van Helsing had said that Lucy had been made into such a demon woman…

The thoughts repeated themselves endlessly in Jack's mind, for there was no end to them till he had answers for them. Adding to that litany, he could hear, somewhere in the distance, a crazed voice screaming, "Oh, God, no! Mina! Mina! Tell me what's happening!"

The sensation of having someone _fly _while carrying you, especially when you were extremely dizzy from blood loss, was not entirely pleasant, Mina reflected as the Count carried her through many stone hallways. She had no idea where they were, only that it was very far from London, far enough that it was unlikely anyone would ever be able to find her here. Quite possibly it was the castle where Jonathan had stayed, where he had gone mad, though she wasn't sure why he would take her here after having made such an effort to relocate to England.

Eventually, it seemed, they had reached the room where the Count intended to bring her. Quickly he carried her through the open door and then helped her to stand wordlessly. In fact, he had not said a word to her since biting her, and as it was, she was not certain whether or not she was glad of that. For a long moment his hands remained on her body, helping her stand, but she detested the feeling of his touch against her body at all. His hands were cold, and it was almost as though she could feel that coldness through her clothing. And even to allow his hands to remain on her waist, or the small of her back, felt like a betrayal of Jonathan.

She pulled away, gripping the nearby wall instead, determined to not let herself fear him, even though he had just _bitten _her (oh God, the horror of even thinking of the fact that he had sunk his teeth into her neck, that he had drunk her blood), even though he had taken her away from everything she loved.

But even though he didn't immediately pull her back towards him, the Count spoke to her almost immediately after she had pulled away from his touch, his voice holding a terrible amusement. "You'll have to get used to my touch now, Mina. That shouldn't be so difficult for you. I saw your reaction to it earlier."

She blushed, hating herself for those reactions. They had been instinctive and brief, mattering not at all. She wasn't some foolish and easily swayed girl. And such reactions _certainly _did not mean she would betray Jonathan.

The Count took a step towards her then, and she was suddenly, painfully aware of the fact that the man – or demon, from what she and Jonathan had seen – before her had her completely in his power. If he truly intended to do…such things to her and she fought him, he could kill her, he could torture her, and of course it would be a simple matter for him to completely ignore her wishes in such matters. And from what she knew of him, she doubted that he would have any scruples with that. Involuntarily, she shivered, and he, as though he was reading her thoughts, smiled in an awful way that bared his fangs and said "I'm glad you can see why it would be a good idea to obey me."

Obey…oh, God. How long did he intend to keep her here, forcing her to obey his every whim? Would he eventually kill her at the end of it, or…no, she couldn't even think about what 'making her his' meant. And he had mentioned something about Jonathan – no, she wouldn't think about that either. She would try and focus on the present, as awful as even that was, and not think about any of those worries.

Even if she had been trying to think about such things, it would have been made difficult when, in the next instant, she felt the Count's fingers against her cheek. She lowered her eyes, though whether that from shame or horror was not clear, but then her said, his voice firm and commanding "Look at me."

Obey him…she had to, for then at least, and so she hesitantly met his eyes. Bizarrely, they were red rather than green now, and the sight of them made her shudder. They reminded her of hellfire, of blood, of rage, of sinful passion. She also felt that she had seen those eyes before, in Whitby Bay, when Lucy had been sleepwalking…they had terrified her at then, and they terrified in that place, so far from everything she knew.

His blazing red eyes still fixed upon hers, the Count ran a finger over her lips in a gesture oddly more intimate than a kiss. Despite herself, she gasped, and the Count smiled, beginning to run his hand down her neck, over the marks from his recent bite, which were still covered with dried blood, some of which flaked off onto his fingers, and began tracing her collarbone. The sensation could have been almost pleasant was it not for the fact that she was still looking straight into his eyes, and she refused to enjoy anything that involved betraying Jonathan, which this was most certainly doing.

As the Count moved the path of his caresses lower, his fingers came in contact with the fabric of her dress. As if annoyed at that fact, he dug his nails into the skin in the hollow of her collarbone, and when Mina gasped in then it was out of pain. The Count stepped back for an instant and then said, his voice was cold as his touch was, "Take off your clothing."

She probably should have expected something like that, what with the comments he had been making, but nevertheless she was shocked. She had not spoken since before he bit her, and when she spoke at that moment her voice was barely audible. "You…surely you can't expect…"

The Count sighed, seeming tired with her modesty. "I can and I do. For as long as you remain here – which I assure you will be quite a long time – you will wear the clothing that I provide for you." He gestured towards a neatly folded pile of black clothing on top of a dresser on the other side of the room. She nodded and lowered her eyes, detesting this with every fiber of her being, but seeing no way to get out of it she merely waited and hoped that he would leave the room of at least turn his back.

He did neither. Instead, he addressed her impatiently. "My dear, please, continue. While I may have an eternity to live you, at the moment, do not." Desperate, Mina looked up and met his eyes, but she couldn't find any pity there, nor anything else that she could appeal to. Begging him to not make her do this ridiculous and humiliating thing would do no good, she was certain.

No, no, she wouldn't do this. She didn't care what the consequences might be, nor what the Count could do to her. She wouldn't debase herself this way, especially not while Jonathan, her beloved husband was rotting in a cell in a lunatic asylum. But as she began to shake her head frantically, hysteria working its way into her thoughts and emotions, the Count's fingers closed around her arm, holding her as tightly as though they were made out of bone, or steel. "Learn to obey me." He whispered, his voice an angry hiss in her ear before he flung her halfway across the room as easily as though she was a rag doll. Mina got up after several moments remaining where he had left her, certain that there were bruises on many parts of her body. Though she still detested this, Mina felt less inclined to resist now, and began to remove her clothing as he commanded, beginning with her shoes and stockings.

Then she took off her dress, letting it fall on the floor, but then, her instincts getting the better of her, folding it and putting it down neatly. As she did so, she could feel the Count's eyes on her, and she knew that they must be red (however it was that his eyes changed colors; he was a demon, after all, Jonathan had told her), for only those blazing red eyes could burn through her so. But, with a courage that surprised herself, Mina looked up, directly into those eyes, and gazed at the Count with a look of purest hatred.

It was several seconds before she finally looked away and turned her attention to unlacing her corset – slightly difficult for her to do by herself, but something she was quite used to by now.

After Mina had finished undressing, she quickly put on the clothing the Count had left for her, which may have been a bit immodest, but she expected that by now. What did surprise her, however, was when the Count said to her, "You look beautiful," his tone obviously appreciative. But then he grabbed her wrist, saying curtly, "Come," as though she had any choice in the matter, and began leading her through what felt like endlessly hallways, seeming all eerily all empty, though she did think she heard ghostly laughter from one, which made her shiver, reminded of the demon women Jonathan had described in his journal.

Then they came to a closed door, which the Count opened without knocking. Mina followed him silently until she heard a familiar voice.

"Vlad, I really am so glad you decided that we should come back to your castle, it really is wonderful here, if a bit dusty, and there's so much more _room, _which I do think we'll be needing…"

Mina couldn't help gasping at Lucy's voice, a sound that she thought she would never hear again. At that moment, it was the most wonderful sound in the world. The Count cut off Lucy's stream of speech – the dazed Mina thought vaguely that that was a good thing, as if someone didn't do that, she could quite possibly go on forever – with firm, but not unkind words. "Lucy, my dear, I believe I have someone with me who you would like to see."

He brought Mina forward and she could see Lucy clearly. Lucy gasped delightedly, and neither of them really noticed as the Count left, closing the door behind him. Neither of them quite knew who ran into the other's arms first, but the end result was that they were both holding each other, and Mina was cry, her tears getting Lucy's light – nearly sheer – white dress wet. "I thought you were dead." Mina whispered, tears choking her and making her unable to speak louder. Lucy laughed, that wonderful tinkling laughter like the sound of water-glasses. "Well, I'm very sorry to worry you, Mina, dear, but, as you can see, I certainly am not dead."

She smiled and, in horror, Mina saw that Lucy had fangs, just as the Count had. But Lucy only laughed again at Mina's reaction. "Oh, don't be afraid, you'll have them too soon enough, I think. And really, it's such _fun!"_

Mina shuddered and pulled away from Lucy's arm instinctively, though she didn't really want to, especially after thinking that she was dead. Lucy looked rather cross, and Mina was vividly reminded of the fact that being around Mina, who she had known most of her life, caused Lucy to become far more childish. Even after she had been changed into a demon by the Count, apparently. But when Lucy spoke again, her voice was serious, and rather annoyed. "Mina, I know that Vlad can be a bit…harsh, sometimes, but it's really not all that bad. I'll be getting Arthur, Jack and Quincey soon, I'm sure he would let you have Jonathan with you! And what fun we'll have now that we're both here. Why, we could even hunt together!"

Whether in terror or disgust or a combination of both, Mina turned and fled without another word. She stopped running when she reached the Count, who stood slightly outside the door of the room that was apparently Lucy's. She followed him, still silent back to the room where he had first brought her. He told her quite calmly that the sun would be rising soon, and he would be going to sleep. He advised her to do the same, as she would apparently have to get used to such sleeping patterns. He also told her that he felt obliged to tie her to the bed while they both slept, and though she didn't quite understand why this was necessary – was the lock to the door broken? Where there items she could use to kill herself in the room? – she didn't protest. And so Mina Harker drifted off to an uneasy sleep with her ankle tied to a bedpost a little after the sun rose, and she dreamed of absolutely nothing.

R. M. Renfield had felt his Master's anger since he had told Jonathan Harker about His plans. All that night and even the next day while the Master slept he could feel that anger like a knife twisting within him, driven further and further in as the day went on. Many times that day, perhaps knowing internally what his fate would be, Renfield begged, even prayed for the Master to forgive him.

But of course, it did not work. When he saw the mist that always announced his Master's arrival (as though he was the God of the Old Testament himself, arriving in a pillar of fire and smoke) he knew that his life was over. Even at the end he begged, clinging to the hem of the cloak his Master wore, but He didn't care. The last words Renfield heard were from his Master's lips, cold and emotionless, "No one betrays me and lives to recall it," before he felt his Master's fangs piercing his neck and the world was darkness for him forever.

The night before that, Jonathan had screamed till his throat was raw and he could scream no more. At that time Dr. Seward had come, with a few of the other attendants at the Asylum and talked to him, about something that Jonathan couldn't remember. At the time he hadn't cared a bit, he was so consumed in his fear for himself and Mina. If he had been a bit more rational about it, he reflected the next day, and then perhaps he could have at least attempted to convince Dr. Seward that it was all true, that he wasn't insane. But at the time he simply couldn't manage such a thing.

And, actually, given his behavior directly before that, he might not have been able to manage it, whatever the circumstances.

Soon after the sun rose he had fallen to sleep, exhausted by everything that had gone on that night. Something within his mind tried to remind him that this was how the Count had slept, during the day, as though he was afraid of the light of the sun. Jonathan didn't want to become like that, never. But his body gave in to sleep, almost against his own will.

Jonathan woke up some time before the sun set that day. As he obsessively went over every possible clue he had of the Count's purposes, he could hear constant murmuring from the room next to his. It sounded like praying of some sort. It was an extremely eerie sound, especially as he couldn't hear the words clearly. It seemed to work its way into Jonathan's consciousness, driving him slowly mad. Soon after the sunset, the murmuring grew louder, more frantic. Almost more like begging than praying. Then it stopped, suddenly, and the room next to him was completely quiet.

Then, Jonathan heard footsteps behind him, and a terribly familiar voice. "Ah, Jonathan Harker. How pleasant to see you again. I trust you have enjoyed the time since you left my castle. I heard that you have gotten married, to the charming Mina Murray – Mina Harker now, I imagine."

It was as though, with those seemingly pleasant words, everything that was holding Jonathan together snapped and all the fears and worries and nightmares overcame him. He turned around immediately at the sound of the Count's voice, and then stumbled backwards, his face ashen, his eyes filled with shock. It was several seconds before Jonathan got over his shock enough to turn and run to the door of the room, banging on it frantically and calling for someone to let him out, to let him get away from this monster. But the Count grabbed his arm, his grip as inhumanly powerful as Jonathan remembered it, and pulled him away from the door. "There's no need to make a fuss over this." The Count sounded slightly annoyed, but mostly his voice still held that politeness that had at first caused Jonathan to believe that he was simply an old eccentric nobleman. The politeness was grating after Jonathan had found out that wasn't all the Count was, that the respectable man who had sat for hours discussing his heritage with Jonathan was actually a demonic monster.

And so Jonathan reacted with anger to that calm tone. "Of course there's reason to make a fuss! I'm not going to let you drink my blood again, and I'm certainly not going to let you turn me into such a monster as you are!" He took a breath to scream, and the Count put a hand over his mouth. When he spoke, his voice no longer held any façade of politeness, though it remained calm. "I believe you would be more inclined to cooperate with my purposes if it was the only way you could see your wife. Am I not right?"

With the Count's hand still over his mouth Jonathan couldn't answer, but the horror in his eyes must have been enough of an answer, for the Count threw back his head and laughed, a cold, unpleasant laugh that bared his fangs. At the sound of that awful laughter, Jonathan began fighting wildly, though it did little good, for the Count's inhuman strength made it impossible to win against him. But somehow, in the course of the fight, the Count pulled away the hand covering his mouth. Jonathan took that opportunity to shout, "No, I won't let you hurt Mina!"

The Count managed to pin Jonathan against the wall of the cell. "I'm afraid that you don't have much power over that, Jonathan. It can be quite difficult to protect your loved ones from inside a lunatic asylum." The Count's body was pressed close to Jonathan, their faces nearly touching. It made Jonathan want to flinch and close his eyes and not look at the Count at all, but he didn't want to show weakness in front of him. He still had some pride left, despite all that had happened. "I'll get out somehow…or I'll get the Doctor, and get him to call Mina here, have her wear a crucifix…the instant you're gone I'll do everything I can to protect her, I won't let you get away with this…" Jonathan knew his frightened rambling was not doing him any good, but he didn't know what else to say, and he was trying to convince himself that he was not completely powerless, though a part of him knew that he was.

And, of course, the Count was well aware of that fact. "It's a bit too late for that." He said with a smile, and Jonathan began screaming hysterically again but this time it was more out of terror than anything else. "Oh, God, what have you done to Mina, you damned monster?"

The Count ran the back of his hand over Jonathan's cheek in what might have been a caress. "Nothing that I don't intend to do to you eventually. Would you like to come with me and see?" The Count let go of Jonathan then, but he was too shocked and scared for Mina to try and attack him again. For some reason Jonathan had the feeling that the Count had brought Mina to that awful castle, filled with endless passageways that led nowhere and terrible secrets behind locked doors. The thought of Mina there, scared, confused, was almost too much for him to bear. He never wanted to go there again as long as he lived, but now…he swallowed and said words that he knew he would come to regret. "I'll go."

Arthur Holmwood was not used to loneliness. He had several younger siblings, and had always spent much time with his father. When he had gone to school, he acquired many friends, or at least people he enjoyed spending time with. It was true that, except for Lucy, he wasn't much used to being very close to other people, but he wasn't used to be as alone as he was after Lucy's death, either.

His father was dead. His siblings were all either married and busy with their own families or moved quite far away from London. His unmarried younger brother stayed at the Ring, caring for the estates there. And Arthur didn't feel comfortable with any of his friends except Jack and Quincey, and he certainly couldn't talk to _them._

And so Lucy's death had left him completely alone, spending hours sitting in the parlor with an untouched glass of brandy in front of him and a book in his lap that he wasn't paying much attention to. When he had met Lucy, he felt like an entire new dimension had been added to his life. He had known that he wouldn't be able to live without her, and he had hoped that she had felt at least something like that for him, even if he was terribly flustered around her and repeat things that he had said already. The day when she had accepted his proposal had been the happiest of his life. Now he felt her absence every day afresh, whenever he wondered what they would be doing if she had lived and they were married then, whenever he saw a flower stall or a pretty blue scarf and thought of buying them for her. Sometimes he bought the flowers anyway and put them by her tomb.

He needed someone to talk to, who would somehow relieve the loneliness. And, oddly, the first person he thought of was Mina Harker.

It was true that he had only met her recently, but her kindness had made an impression on him. And she was Lucy's friend, and from the way Lucy had spoken about her, Mina knew Lucy as well, if not better than Arthur did. So, even though it was rather sudden, and he had not told anyone of this intention, Arthur went to visit Mina, taking her up on her offer to let any of them visit anytime.

By the time Arthur got to Mina's home – a modest house that looked rather welcoming – it was dark. When he got to the front door, he noticed that it was open. Slightly worried, he knocked on it hesitantly and then walked inside, knowing that this was rude and terribly improper, but getting the odd feeling that there was some wrong here.

Inside, the house was silent and dark. He stepped over a shawl – the one Mina had worn to bring Jonathan to the asylum the day before – as he walked into the room off of the front hallway. That too was empty, though he could see in the dim light an ugly reddish-brown stain on the carpet. It looked like – blood.

Arthur hurried out of the house, called a cab, and went to Jack's asylum as quickly as he possibly could.

When he reached Carfax Asylum he hurried to Jack's office, where Arthur found his friend doing some sort of paperwork. He put it down as soon as Arthur entered, looking worried at the expression on Arthur's face. Before Jack could say anything, however, Arthur spoke, the words coming out of him in a rush. "Mina Harker is gone. The door to her house is open and – there are bloodstains on her carpet."

Jack looked about as shocked as Arthur was. "Oh, God." After a pause, he continued, "I should probably talk to her husband – though that could be difficult, considering that he spent most of the day yelling unintelligible statements." Arthur nodded. "I'll go with you."

Together they went to the room where Jonathan was staying. Cautiously, Jack opened the door.

Jonathan was nowhere to be found.

Jonathan detested flying with the Count's arms around him, but he couldn't say anything because it would be all too easy for the Count to let him plummet down to his death. Though sometimes, when the feeling of flying made him unbearably nauseous and he felt even more sick at the feeling of the Count's body pressed against his own, Jonathan wondered if that would be such a bad thing. After all, everything indicated that the Count intended to change Jonathan to a demon like himself and presumably torment him for however long such demons lived. Surely death would be better than that.

But no, he had to live for Mina. He couldn't leave her alone at the Count's mercy, which Jonathan was not sure existed. He kept this thought in his mind for all the torturous journey that had to have taken several hours.

Eventually they reached the castle. They entered through a window, and the Count let go of Jonathan without warning and said, equally suddenly, "Follow me." It was the last thing Jonathan wanted to do, especially in that castle, which was already making him shudder and pale. He thought he could hear the whispering voices of those women in the air, and the cold of the castle was just as he remembered; unearthly, seeping into your bones unpleasantly. But when he saw the door where the Count stopped, Jonathan felt even more awful. As they stepped inside, his fears were confirmed.

It was the room where he had stayed.

The room had not changed in the month that he had been gone from it. Even the objects on the dresser had not been moved, though a green dress and other articles of women's clothing were in a neat pile next to it. And Mina was there, of course.

It hurt to look at her like that. She looked fragile as she slept in a way she rarely did when awake. She lay curled up as she often did when she slept, but this time there was a rope around her ankle, tying her to the bed. She was wearing a dress that Jonathan couldn't imagine her ever picking out for herself, as well. It wasn't…modest, enough, somehow. She looked like a prisoner there, tied to the bed, wearing clothes that _he _must have given her. Though it was true that in effect, she must be a prisoner.

So engrossed was Jonathan in these awful thoughts that he didn't even notice the Count coming up behind him until he was whispering in Jonathan's ear. "Delightful, isn't it? Though eventually I do hope that it won't be necessary to actually _tie _her there - a mere suggestion will be enough. In fact, we've come remarkably close to that point already." Jonathan shuddered, both at the words and at the Count's nearness, and replied, still whispering, as he really didn't want to wake Mina, not now. "I don't believe that you could do that, not to Mina, not ever."

There was a terrible triumph in the Count's next words. "My dear Mina is, in fact, quite good at obedience, though she, I have found, makes a great show of attempting to fight." He gave Jonathan a moment to absorb that, and then began walking towards where Mina lay, still asleep. Jonathan wanted to stop him, to say something, but he stood there as though frozen, unable to stop whatever the Count intended to do to Jonathan's wife.

The Count reached out and touched Mina's cheek. Her eyelids fluttered, but the Count said, his words clearly a command, "Don't open your eyes." To Jonathan's horror, she obeyed, and when the Count commanded her again, "Bare your neck." She did that as well, though this time he could see some emotion in her face, though it was difficult to tell what with her eyes closed. Then the Count lowered his head to her neck and sunk his teeth into her. She gasped, probably out of pain – at least, Jonathan hoped so.

It was awful to see the Count bent over Mina, _feeding _off her as though she was nothing more than an object, but somehow Jonathan did nothing to stop him. It wasn't too long, though, till the Count pulled away and left Mina there, the marks from where the Count had drunk her blood standing out terribly on her neck. Jonathan shuddered to see the Count then, as well: his mouth dripped with Mina's blood. But still Mina kept her eyes shut, as the Count had ordered her to do.

The Count walked back to where Jonathan stood, keeping his voice a whisper still, so quiet that Jonathan could barely hear him. "I should do the same to you. You both must grow accustomed to the feeling of being bitten, though of course you know what it feels like already." Jonathan winced involuntarily at that memory, and the Count smiled. "There are indeed a great number of things that you must grow accustomed to, but this, I believe, shall be the first." And, without any more warning, the Count bit Jonathan.

Jonathan couldn't help crying out, and at the sound, Mina's eyes snapped open. As the Count finally pulled his mouth away from Jonathan's neck and he fell to his knees, the blood loss making him unable to remain standing, he could hear Mina's panicked cry. "Jonathan!"

She tried to move towards him, but was prevented by the rope around her ankle. The Count went to her then, apparently done with Jonathan for the moment, and got onto the bed beside her, grabbing a chunk of her hair and yanking it back painfully so that the marks on her neck were completely visible. Holding her like that, he began to speak, his voice eerily calm, given the circumstances. "Now, I would like you both to give me your full attention, for I intend to tell you information that shall be of great importance to you soon. I am about to change you each into a vampire, one of the undead, as I am. In that form you will both live eternally at my side as flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood, kin of my kin. There will be certain natural laws that you must follow at that time, and which I shall tell you of in more detail at a later time. A vampire lives from the blood of other beings, either humans or other vampires. They also have both great powers and limitations, one of the latter being that the sunlight is forbidden to us, and so shall burn us when we enter it. But despite the powers and limitations that we then shall share, you must understand that my authority over you both will be completely. According to the customs of vampires, I shall be your Maker, and therefore able to command you. And our minds and souls shall be connected in a manner that you, as mortals are not able to understand yet. It is a gift I shall give you, as you shall understand in time. And to that, end this!"

Mina and Jonathan were both trembling by the time this speech was over, and yet neither of them moved, Mina because she couldn't, and Jonathan because he was either too weak or too shocked or too scared to. Neither of them knew quite what was going to happen next, though they may both have guessed.

The Count and Mina were at that time both kneeling on the bed facing one another, and the Count, still holding Mina by the air, pulled his shirt open with the other hand and drew one nail across a vein in his chest, causing his blood to spurt out. The only sign of Mina's fear was her breathing, which was frantic and erratic and loud enough that Jonathan could hear it clearly, though that could have been the complete silence of the room. Suddenly and brutally, the Count forced Mina's head down onto the flowing blood on his chest. "No!" Jonathan cried out when he realized what was happening, but neither the Count nor Mina paid any attention (though if Mina had he would not have been able to tell anyway). The Count was no longer holding Mina's hair back, but was running his fingers through it in, just as Jonathan had often done. It was a gesture intended to comfort someone, and the Count doing it to Mina as he held her head down and forced her to drink his blood was simply repulsive. He was whispering something to her as well, too quietly for Jonathan to hear, but the tone sounded gentle, which made Jonathan want to do something violent to the Count.

With Mina still drinking his blood, the Count addressed Jonathan, his words a commands as surely as his earlier words to Mina had been. "Come here." Pretty sure what was about to happen, Jonathan came anyway. If he refused to this the Count would just make him, what was currently happening to Mina proved that well enough. As he had somewhat expected, after Jonathan had managed to get to the Count and Mina – his weakness from the Count having recently taken his blood made it difficult – the Count bit his own wrist and extended it to Jonathan. Looking directly at him, he said, "Drink."

Jonathan felt sickened but, after a few seconds, did so. The blood tasted oddly and distinctive, overwhelmingly like metal. He had, of course, tasted blood before, when he bit his tongue by accident and such, but it was different in large quantities, and somewhat more unpleasant (however odd it was, he did like the taste of small amounts of blood). He forced himself to keep drinking though, until the Count pulled his wrist away from Jonathan and allowed Mina to stop.

She tried not to look at Jonathan, but he managed to meet her eyes, and saw that they were filled with tears. Jonathan remembered noticing that all three of their mouths were now covered with blood.

When he and Jack couldn't find out anything of Mina and Jonathan's whereabouts, and couldn't figure out the cause of Renfield's death – though the latter did have two wounds on his neck that were so like the ones on Lucy's that Arthur had had to leave the room – Arthur went home. It was late at night and he knew that he should just go to sleep, but he thought that if he went to sleep he would have nightmares. Too much had happened that day, and that had all caused too many worries. So he poured himself brandy and tried not to think about it.

Arthur couldn't have been home long before he heard a knocking from the front door. He had servants for that sort of thing, but they were all asleep and he didn't need to wake them for this. So he went to the door and opened, and saw both the last person he expected to see and the one he most wished to.

Lucy smiled. "Oh, Arthur it's so wonderful to see you again! I really have missed you."

He had to be imagining this. Lucy was dead; he had attended her burial himself and seen her lying in her coffin, her rose cheeks paler, her eyes forever closed, but as beautiful. He had gone mad and thought that his dead fiancée was standing in front of him.

"Aren't you going to invite me inside, _husband?"_

It was that last word which undid him. "Oh…of course." Perhaps he was babbling like a mad idiot to himself, but he held out his hand for her to take. This would be the test of his sanity. If she took it, she was real. Memories didn't have substance.

She took his hand. Her skin was colder than he remembered it, but Arthur didn't care. She was his Lucy, and she was there and she was _alive. _Nothing else mattered but that. As he led her inside, Arthur truly could not have been happier. "But…but how?" His question was hesitant, and he wasn't sure he really wanted an answer to it, at least not then, for that would spoil this wonderful illusion of everything being perfect. Perhaps luckily, Lucy didn't actually answer. "There will be time for all that later, love. Right now, perhaps we could…" She looked down modestly, but didn't blush, as she most certainly would have if she said anything like this before. "Arthur, since we should have been married by now, I thought that if…"

Arthur did blush slightly. "Lucy, are you entirely sure…?" But, to be perfectly honest, he hoped that she was.

Lucy smiled, and this time it wasn't modest at all. "Yes, dear, I think that I am."

And that settled it. They went to Arthur's bedroom and consummated their marriage – a marriage that hadn't quite taken place. It was wonderful, and Arthur was overcome by such a haze of pleasure at the end that he hardly noticed or cared when Lucy sunk her teeth into his neck until she had already done so and was drinking his blood. By the time she had let him go, he had no strength to resist when she pushed her bleeding wrist between his lips.

Jonathan didn't know when he had lost consciousness the previous night, but when he regained it he was lying in a room he had not seen before. It was essentially the same as the one he had stayed in the first time, the one where he had seen Mina the night before, sparsely furnished, but with old pieces of good quality for what furniture they had.

Everything felt different, though. It was as if every sensation was magnified a hundred fold, including ones that Jonathan hadn't known existed. He could hear even the rustle of the blankets on the bed as he got up as clearly as he could have heard someone speaking to him. The feeling of anything – cloth, wood, stone – beneath his fingers was so much richer, so much more exquisite. Even colors seemed brighter, more vivid.

So this was what it meant to be a vampire. Well, it was certainly different from what Jonathan thought being dead would be like. He mused on this for a moment, and then noticed that clothes had been left out for him. His own clothing was rumbled and dirty (and slightly bloodstained), and so he changed into it. The clothing was black, and quite like what he had seen the Count wear. It was also slightly too big for him, so he assumed that it was the Count's, as the Count was indeed quite a bit taller than Jonathan. It felt uncomfortable to be wearing the Count's clothes, but he suppose that there could be more uncomfortable things that he would have to deal with here.

When he had finished dressing, Jonathan decided to go to Mina. He thought he could find the room where he had stayed easily enough, and he wanted to be with Mina. For all that those sensations that had come from being a vampire were pleasant, this new form scared him, as did pretty much everything about the castle and the Count. He wanted to be with Mina then, to have her comfort him and to comfort her.

It was true that he didn't have much difficulty finding the room. When he entered, Mina looked up, startled, and he saw fear in her eyes for the instant before she registered that it was him. When she did, though, she got out of the bed and ran to him, grabbing both his hands. Jonathan was quite glad that she wasn't tied to the bed any longer.

"Are you all right?" She whispered, as though this was a furtive meeting of lovers who were forced to meet under cover of darkness so that their families wouldn't find them, rather than a wife greeting her husband again. Jonathan nodded. "Are you?" Though he wasn't sure why, he whispered as well.

She looked away from him for an instant, as though she couldn't stand to meet his eyes, or as though she was lying. "Yes." She said, her voice even more quiet than theirs had both been before.

Jonathan didn't show that he disbelieved her, but rather simply nodded in reply and said nothing. After a long silence that was slightly awkward, Mina said in a rush. "Lucy's here…she's like we are now…a vampire. But –" Here she nearly cried and had to pause for a moment. "- she's not the way we are…she enjoys it."

This was certainly not what Jonathan expected to hear, and he wasn't entirely certain how to reply to it, so he said nothing. When the silence began again stretching out to long, Mina spoke again, still not looking directly at him. "What do you think he'll do to us?"

Jonathan felt a lump rise in his throat and barely managed to choke out words. "I don't know, Mina. I don't know."

Quincey wasn't entirely sure why neither Jack nor Arthur had contacted him in a few days. It did worry him quite a bit, but he knew that they both were mourning Lucy, as he was, and that they must have difficulty talking to him. Just because Quincey felt better sharing his grief with others didn't mean that everyone did, especially Jack and Arthur, who could, when they wanted to, be the most reclusive people Quincey knew (which, admittedly, was not saying much). Despite all that, he couldn't help worrying.

Sighing, Quincey decided not to think about it. He took out a cigarette and lit it before opening the window so that the fumes got out of the room. Cigarettes were a relatively new product, but Quincey had adopted the use of them immediately, as they suited him more than cigars, somehow. He personally didn't mind the smell of their smoke, but most people did (Arthur, for one. Lucy had thought it was charming, and distinctive.). And he liked having the window open. The cool night air seemed infused with possibilities, adventures to come.

He had not been sitting and smoking for more than a few minutes, though, when a strange sort of mist began to fill the room. Confused, Quincey looked out the window for the source, but saw nothing that might be making such a thing. And the mist was eerie, cold and discomforting, and yet, there was an odd familiarity about it. Then, it began to change into the form of his beloved Lucy.

Quincey began wondering if there had been something else in the beer he had drunk earlier that evening, but it was hard to actually think such things, for this illusion of seeing Lucy was extremely saddening.

And then something even more impossible happened. This vision of Lucy put a hand on Quincey's waist, as if they were about to dance, and then threw her other arm over him, pulling him close to her with a strength that he hadn't thought small, fragile Lucy was capable of.

He wasn't imaging this. He could feel Lucy's body pressed against his and her golden hair falling over his face. He could hear her sweet voice whispering about how much she had missed him, about how much he mattered to her, and then she kissed him and _that _certainly wasn't something he was inclined to break away from, whether Lucy was supposed to be dead and married or not. And kissing soon led to other things, and then she put a hand over his mouth before she bit him.

Arthur awoke on a comfortable bed that certainly was not his own. He sighed contentedly with the memory of recent pleasure, and then began to actually _remember _what had happened the night before. At that he sat up and looked to see where he was immediately. He was in a room that he could not recognize in the slightest. There was another bed in the room, and on that lay Quincey, who was far paler than normal, and Arthur thought he could see something a bit like fangs in his mouth. Actually, when Arthur ran his tongue over the top row of his teeth, he could feel that his eyeteeth were longer and sharper than before.

Everything else felt different as well. Even the act of getting up from bed and walking to where Quincey lay was…odd, somehow. Not the way he remembered it. And he had absolutely no idea what was going on.

Quincey woke up almost as soon as Arthur took a step towards him. He had always been quick to awake, but never _that _quick. Yet another odd thing about this all, though less so than most of the rest of it. Quincey sat up, rubbing his eyes. "Where the Hell am I?" He asked, his accent thickened by shock.

Arthur frowned, trying to remember if there had been anything in the…events with Lucy had included any clue as to where she had apparently taken him. He could think of none. "Frankly, I don't have any idea." He paused. "Quincey...what happened to you before you got here?"

Quincey blushed, which confused Arthur for a second but also gave him a terrifying thought. "Umm…well, you see, there was all this mist…and then Lucy was there…I know it sounds impossible, but…and then…" His voice trailed off and he looked even more embarrassed.

Arthur began to feel sick.

The Count entered the room where Mina had slept that day and the previous one as she still held Jonathan's hands, both of them caught in uncomfortable silence. She turned to look at him as she heard his footsteps – she had not been able to hear them before that night – and saw annoyance in his features, though it was not quite anger, luckily. "I see the two of you still believe yourselves to be husband and wife, despite what I have made you." The Count's voice was unpleasant and Mina felt Jonathan grip her hand more tightly.

She managed to meet his eyes, which, luckily, were green, and spoke as calmly as she could manage. "We are."

The Count laughed, though he did not sound amused. "I assure you, that will not last long." Then, suddenly, "Give me your wedding rings."

That was unexpected, and painful. She lowered her eyes, trying not to think about it, but she could feel the insistence of his command in her very veins, demanding that she obey. Not looking at either him or Jonathan, she pulled her wedding ring off and placed it in his hand, trying desperately not to cry. Jonathan watched her for a few moments and then did the same. The Count put the rings into a pocket of his shirt, and a detached part of Mina's mind wondered what he intended to do with them. Mostly though, she was just horrified at what he had just done, though not particularly surprised. She and Jonathan had not been married very long, and now the Count had made it almost as though they never had been married. After all, they had never _really _been husband and wife, had they?

The Count began to speak again. "Now, we have other things to attend to. Both of you must feed, but yet I am loath to let you leave the castle yet. Therefore, I have decided that it would be best, at this point, for Mina to drink my blood."

She shuddered, the memory of his blood in her mouth the night before terribly strong. But before she had time to worry about it, the Count had taken her hand in his and pulled her close to him with a hand on her waist. He then tilted his head, baring his neck to her. She was suddenly undeniably aware of a severe thirst that she had felt since waking up but was only then fully aware of. The vein in his neck, an etching of blue beneath his pale skin, seemed extremely appealing, and her eyes remained fixed on it in a sort of hungry fascination.

It was as though there was no one in the room but her at the Count, for they were all that mattered at that moment. The Count whispered to her, his words not quite a command. "Take it, Mina. It is what you desire." She could feel fangs in her mouth and they were oddly right there. After only a brief moment of hesitation she threw an arm over him and sunk her fangs into the vein in his neck.

The taste of the blood was exquisite, unlike the night before, and she drank eagerly, though he only let her do so for a few moments before pulling away from her, for, even weakened by blood loss, he was still far stronger than her. She found herself licking the blood off her lips, and when she looked up at Jonathan, there was an expression of utter revulsion on his face. Luckily, she only was able to meet his eyes for a few seconds before he averted them, as though ashamed, though whether or her or his reaction she did not know.

The Count then put his hands on Jonathan's shoulders and said, his voice almost…pleasant for an instant. "I believe it is your turn, Jonathan." And then the pleasantness was gone. "And, if you are adamant about considering this woman you wife, then you may take her blood."

Mina saw Jonathan shudder and she did as well. Surely he could not expect Jonathan to…but it seems he did. After a few seconds, though, Jonathan said, his voice halfway between a sob and a yell, "I won't." Mina could see the Count's long, pale fingers tightening their hold on Jonathan's shoulders in a way that surely must be painful. "You will. As a vampire you must get used to drinking blood, and surely this will be easier than most times you shall have to do so, as Mina will offer her blood freely, will you not, my dear?" Mina nodded, lowering her eyes.

The Count whispered something to Jonathan that made him wince, something Mina couldn't hear. But, whatever it was, it influenced Jonathan enough that he went to Mina's side. He hesitated, but put his arms around her awkwardly. "Please forgive me." He whispered in her ear, and then lowered his head to her neck.

She trusted Jonathan, she trusted Jonathan, she would be all right, this was _Jonathan…_Mina repeated the words in her mind in hope that they would comfort her, but the unique pain of being bitten was no less bearable knowing that it was her husband who drunk her blood. Jonathan, actually, drunk her blood more hungrily than the Count had, as though he was starving and she been his only form of nourishment for weeks. It was only when the Count pulled Jonathan away from Mina that he stopped, and by then she felt as though she was about to fall, despite the intoxicating power of the Count's blood in her veins. She kept her eyes firmly fixed on the ground.

"You may leave now." Mina heard the Count say to Jonathan, and she heard Jonathan's footsteps and the door closing behind him, but didn't watch him leave. Sometime after Jonathan had left, the Count lifted her chin, forcing her to look up and meet his eyes. They were red, and when he spoke his voice was low. "I want you, Mina. I have gone through enough trouble to make you mine, and now you seem to have come to a point where you understand that." He smiled. "And I intend to take full advantage of _that."_ He lifted a hand to her cheek and she closed her eyes as he then touched her neck, her collarbone, and lower, his touches slightly painful as well as pleasurable through the fabric of her dress. Before beginning to lead her to the bed, the Count kissed her, and Mina kissed him back. After all, she was no longer Jonathan's wife, and it was self-preservation anyway.

Everyone had been disappearing around Jack Seward. After the mysterious disappearances of Jonathan and Mina Harker, and the death of Renfield, both Arthur and Quincey had seemed to vanish into thin air. Jack was beginning to become quite terrified, honestly, and all sort of unlikely thoughts had gone through his mind about what could have caused such things. A thousand times he had wondered if Professor Van Helsing could possibly have been right somehow, if that insanity was the truth. He had tried to tell himself that it couldn't be, that he was being ridiculous, but the similarity of the wounds on Renfield's neck to the ones on Lucy's was unmistakable. There had to be a cause in common. And surely someone had to be causing the disappearances of many of the people Jack knew. Eventually, he had come to believe everything the Professor had told him.

And so he had just sent him a telegram, disjointed and somewhat hysterical, but enough that the Professor would come and they could do whatever precautions were necessary to stop what was going on. Even if it meant chopping off poor Lucy's head. Whatever it took, this had to be ended.

But even as Jack sat down in his office, he heard footsteps behind him. He turned around to see Lucy.

It was soon after Jack awoke in the strange room with Arthur and Quincey when Lucy entered, with a strange tall pale man in black. Lucy was extremely happy to see the three of them, and ran over to embrace each one of them, which was rather awkward given what had happened to them with her recently, and, though none of them knew for certain that the others had had such similar experiences with Lucy, they all rather guessed.

But after the shock of seeing Lucy here wore off slightly, Jack said, his voice tinged with fear, for he could still taste Lucy's blood in his mouth and feel her fangs in his neck, "What have you done to us? And why have you brought us all here? If you were not dead, Lucy, it would have been kind to at least _tell _us somehow, so that we did not all need to be in mourning for you."

Lucy's tone was slightly serious at first, though not as much as warranted the situation, in Jack's opinion. "I'm very sorry about that last. I truly did not want to worry you – I do love all of you, and I never want to cause any of you any pain – but there were things that I had to do before I could come for each of you. But now I've done that, and it'll all be wonderful!" At the end of that statement, her voice became cheerful and rather excited. "You see, it was awfully difficult for me to choose one of you over the others, for I love you all so much, and I knew you all loved me, and it would be horrible to let one of you be happy with me and not the others. But Vlad – " she gestured to the man who stood behind her "knew a way that I could have all of you. So he turned me into a vampire, and as a vampire no one really cares about such conventions, so we can all be together and no one will mind at all!"

For several minutes, Arthur, Jack and Quincey all stood in stunned silence, the contents of Lucy's speech shocking and completely unbelievable, something beyond the realm of the possible, and also something that was terribly horrifying, not least for the thought that they were all now going to _share _Lucy somehow, in a way that was surely sinful. Finally Quincey spoke, his voice quavering. "Vampires?"

Lucy made a dismissing gesture, as though it was something unimportant. "Oh, I don't quite understand the specifics of it myself. We're somehow between life and death, so we can't die or grow old, which is marvelous, but we have to drink blood every night." At the disgust on the men's faces, she smiled. "It's really not so bad, it actually tastes rather good, once you get used to it. And, after all, they're only humans, and we're vampires. It's like eating animals, really."

Arthur only barely managed to speak. "Lucy, really, you can't be saying this…it's barbaric, it's awful, it's impossible…"

She actually _laughed _then. "That's just silly, Arthur, dear. Nothing like that matters now. Don't you understand? None of us are human anymore. Human things don't apply to us. Of course, there are some rules we have to follow, like not going out in the sun, but other than such things, we can really do whatever we like."

The man behind Lucy said to her, his voice quiet but commanding, "Lucy, they must be starving by now. You should give them your blood, at least until you can find the right time to teach them how to feed." Lucy nodded, and took another step towards Arthur, Quincey and Jack. Her tone was businesslike in a way that never had been in their old life when she spoke. "You're going to all have to drink my blood for tonight. Normally you'll have to bite someone to drink their blood, but since I have to give blood to all three of you, and so I can't give you each too much, I'll just bite my wrist and give some to each of you. Does that sound all right?"

How on earth was one supposed to answer a question like that? None of them really knew, and so they said nothing. Apparently, Lucy took that for agreement. "Now, Arthur, you first." And she smiled at him in a way that made him feel quite all right, even in this situation. Then she bit her wrist. The smell of the blood coming from it made the thirst that they all had noticed earlier become immeasurably stronger, and they all felt something that must be fangs – though, oh, God, what an awful thought that was – extend in their mouth. Despite his _need _for the blood on Lucy's wrist, though, Arthur hesitated, looking at Lucy as though pleading for her to help him deal with whatever this was. She leaned in even closer to her and said, her tone intimate. "Arthur please do this…for me?"

After having thought her dead, it was difficult for Arthur to resist anything those blue eyes pleaded for him to do. So, despite everything the still remaining rational part of his mind was telling him, Arthur went to where Lucy stood and pulled her wrist to his lips. The blood that poured into his mouth should have tasted disgusting, but Arthur couldn't have enough of it. It reminded him of that recent night when Lucy bare arms were around him and her blood was in his mouth so recently after they had become husband and wife in the only remaining way that mattered. Though, of course, those memories were difficult to even think about with Quincey and Jack in the room watching, and knowing that both of them had probably had similar experiences with Lucy.

Then she gently pulled her wrist away from Arthur and gestured for Quincey to come. He was blushing red to the roots of his fair hair when he went to Lucy's side, his fangs visible because of the scent of the blood dripping from the still open wound on her wrist. She smiled at him and put an arm around him, and that seemed to be enough for him to lower his head to her wrist, though he swallowed uncomfortably first. Quincey had done a great many things in his life, but none of them were quite so strange as drinking the blood of his almost fiancée right after her real fiancée had done so and after being told that he was now an Undead demon. But really, it wasn't all that bad, and so he just wiped the blood off his lips with the back of his hand sheepishly as he went back to stand next to Arthur.

Everyone's eyes were on Jack, who was shivering and looking quite sick, despite the fact that his fangs were visible as well. "I won't do this," he told Lucy uneasily, "I heard about this from Professor Van Helsing. I didn't believe him then, but I know now…I won't succumb to this horror and damn my own soul, the way the Professor said you had done, Lucy."

Apparently angered by this, the man apparently named Vlad spoke for the first time since he and Lucy had entered the room. "You are damned already, Dr. Seward, and you may as well get used to it." Lucy turned to look at him, and said in that tone that it seemed none of them could withstand, "Vlad, they are my Fledglings. I can deal with this myself." Vlad raised an eyebrow but said no more.

But it seemed that Lucy could deal with it herself, for she grabbed Jack to her and whispered in his ear, "Darling, this is ridiculous. I did this all for you good, anyway," before forcing her wrist to his lips. Of course, when she did so his body took in the blood, however unwilling his mind might be. Finally, Lucy let him stop, and she kissed his cheek quickly before going to kiss Arthur and Quincey's cheeks. Then she left with Vlad, and the three men could hear him say to her, "You should feed after losing that much blood. We will go and hunt now."

They were all silent for a few long minutes, then Quincey said, "So, I guess we can leave this room now and maybe look around this place and see if there's any way to get out." Jack nodded, still looking rather dazed, but Arthur spoke hesitantly. "Are you entirely sure we want to leave? After all, it is Lucy…"

Jack's voice, at least, held conviction. "She's not the Lucy we know, not like this. The Lucy we know wouldn't be such a monster. She wouldn't try to…have all of us when she knows that she has to choose and she chose Art. She wouldn't ask us to _drink her blood."_

Arthur was very quiet, and when he spoke it was difficult to hear. "I suppose so."

This was too awkward, especially for Quincey, so he said, "We don't have to decide whether to leave or not now. We're just going to look around this place and see what it might be. It could be our only chance, what with Lucy and that man – Vlad, or whatever – gone." This time both Jack and Arthur agreed, and they hesitantly left the room and began exploring the castle cautiously.

It was a rather disconcerting experience, wandering through the empty hallways. Sometimes they thought they heard whispering female voices, but none of them could put their finger on where the voices were coming from, so they had to give up trying to find whomever it was who was speaking. It appeared that the castle was deserted except for them, until they nearly ran straight into Mina and Jonathan Harker.

Not Arthur, Quincey or Jack expected to see Mina and Jonathan there. And they were even more shocked when they noticed that Mina and Jonathan appeared to be vampires now. Both of them, especially Mina, looked haunted in ways that they had not been a few days ago (though Jonathan, had, to some extent, had similar shadows in his eyes; now they were simply more prominent), and neither of them were looking at one another, and their fingers were only barely, cautiously entwined. "It was Lucy, wasn't it?" Mina whispered, as soon as she registered Arthur, Quincey and Jack's presence. "She said something about having all of you, but I didn't think she'd really…Oh, I can't believe that she would…not Lucy…"

"Why…how did you get here?" Arthur asked, his voice only a bit louder than Mina's. It was obvious from the look on Quincey's face that he had the same question, but Jack wasn't quite so confused. He was beginning to go over everything from Jonathan's journal in his mind, but this time with the assumption that it was real. And, eerily, it made quite a great deal of sense.

"It was the Count…have you met him yet?" Jonathan had not spoken upon seeing the three other men in the hallway, and he seemed extremely withdrawn. At the mention of the Count, Mina lowered her eyes in a manner that Jack would have thought, had he not known better, was indicative of shame. Quincey frowned in confusion at Jonathan's comment, apparently not noticing Mina's reaction. "No, I don't think –"

Jack interrupted him. "Yes, we have." Turning to Arthur and Quincey, he said, "He was the man with Lucy, I think." They considered that for a moment and nodded in understanding. Mina looked slightly relieved that she didn't have to explain who the Count was further. "He brought us both here and…changed us into vampires."

There was something in her tone that made all three men exchange glances, sure that there was more to it than that – they felt they could share such thoughts now, after what happened with Lucy, for even though they would not speak of their individual experiences, they brought them together in the oddest way. Jonathan noticed the glances and glared at them, but it seemed a bit half-hearted, as though he knew as well.

Suddenly, Mina looked around as though terrified of something. "You should probably leave. I'm not sure if he'd want us to speak to one another." Yes, it seemed obvious that the Count had done more to Mina than she had spoken of. Quincey said, his tone kind, "He's out with Lucy, hunting or some rubbish like that. If there was ever a good time for us to talk, it was now."

Hearing that, Jonathan agreed. "Let's find a room where we can sit down. We have a great deal to talk about, and I think I remember where the library is."

Jonathan had indeed been able to find the library quite quickly. There, they all hesitantly sat down on the various chairs there, Quincey, Jack and Arthur all somewhat close to one another, as though taking comfort in one another's presence without needing to speak. Mina and Jonathan sat slightly further from both the others and each other, though Jonathan watched Mina even as she avoided looking at him. Finally, Quincey spoke, "So, how do you believe we can get out of here?"

There was a pause before Jonathan said, "We can't." His voice was flat.

There was some desperation in Jack's voice. "There has to be a way. They can't be omnipotent, and there are five of us and two of them. Surely we can overpower them somehow."

Quincey continued Jack's statement. "And certainly we could convince Lucy to help us and come with us. She was always such a sweet girl, and she still is the same person, I'm sure. With her on our side we could fight that Count, whoever the Hell he is, easily."

It sounded as though it hurt Arthur to say what he was thinking, his voice was so low. "But remember what she did to Jack? She's…changed now. She's not the woman we loved." Mina nodded. "I think she's gone mad now." Her voice, too, was a whisper. "Though, of course, that's rather understandable, given the circumstances."

There was a long silence at that, until Jack spoke, hesitantly. "I think there's only one thing for it. We have to kill them both."

There was a gasp at that, first from Mina, but also from Arthur and Quincey. Jonathan, however, nodded in agreement. Mina spoke, her voice somewhat frantic, slightly hysterical. "We can't…we can't…they're too powerful, and I don't even know if they can be killed, or if we can…we're in between life and death, how can we die? It's not possible, please, don't try, the Count would be so angry…"

Jonathan put his hand on Mina's then, as if in an attempt to comfort her, though it was doubtful that he actually succeeded. "We can't give in to him by fearing him, Mina. It's what he wants." Mina pulled her hand away from his more violently than anyone expected. "You obey him as fearfully as I do when he is here. Notice that I'm not the only one missing their wedding ring now."

Everyone in the room, including Mina herself seemed shocked at this burst of venom. "I'm sorry." She finally muttered, looking down and not meeting anyone's eyes. No one seemed quite sure what to say for some time, and then Jack said, "But there is a way to kill vampires…Professor Van Helsing told me. I thought that he was insane, but now…" His voice trailed off, but he managed to gather himself together to continue. "We have to drive a stake through their hearts…or cut off their heads. Or both."

Outraged, Quincey stood. "I don't care what you do to this Count, but I for one am not going to let you do that to Lucy, however insane she may have gone." Arthur nodded. "Even with…what Lucy's become, I couldn't bear to do that to her."

Jack touched where the marks on his neck had been the night before, a mixture of annoyance and sorrow on his face. "If you want to try to make her see reason, that's your affair, but I can still taste her blood in my mouth from when she forced me to drink it. I think it's useless. And we should at least attempt to kill the Count."

"I will aid you with that." Jonathan said, his voice slightly shaky from Mina's unexpected anger a few minutes before, but strong enough. "If need be, I will hold the stake as we plunge it into his heart."

Mina said nothing.

Then, suddenly, the door to the library was thrown open at the Count entered. None of them could stop from cringing, both at the sound of the door slamming open and at the Count himself, who was clearly enraged. But Mina looked far more terrified than anyone else there, wincing so much that it seemed as though she wanted to disappear, or become invisible.

It was at the time probably a reasonable wish, for the Count grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet before pushing her against the wall. She couldn't see whether or not anyone even got to their feet to do anything about it, for at that moment she felt someone's presence invading her mind, and though she wanted to fight it, she had no idea how, and so the presence, which she knew had to be the Count, it was so oddly familiar, invaded all her thoughts and memories, leaving no part of her untouched, tainting her mind, the one thing he had not been able to reach yet. When he finally let go of her and she grasped the wall, closing her eyes so as not to cry, her turned to the others, speaking angrily. "I will tolerate no plans of rebellion here, and certainly not any of you attempting to murder Lucy or I. Understand that, as your Makers, Lucy and I have absolute authority over all of you, and you must learn to obey us or be punished for your disobedience. You three," he gestured to Arthur, Quincey and Jack, "go now to Lucy. She will punish you in whatever ways she sees fit. Mina, come with me. Jonathan, stay here. I will return to speak with you soon. It would be foolish to think that leaving could help you, I assure you."

Arthur, Quincey and Jack left, and the Count grabbed Mina's wrist and began to lead her out of the room and to a flight of stairs going down. She could not see the bottom of them, as though led all the way down to Hell itself, and she hesitated, but with the Count holding her wrist Mina was not very able to stop from moving down the slippery stone steps. Resisting would likely have led only to her falling on the hard stone. So she continued to follow him down the stairs, keeping her eyes lowered, trying not to think of how he might punish her for being part of that meeting which had conspired against him.

The stairs seemed to continue on forever, making her wonder idly if they really did lead to Hell after all. But eventually they did end at what appeared to cells, metal grating separating each one from the other, brownish-red stains that were probably extremely old dried blood covered the floors of much of it. Apparently the Count's castle had dungeons.

Mina began to shudder, her fear increasing as the Count opened the door of one of the cells. However, she didn't resist when he led her inside, nor when he took the chains from the wall and fastened them to her wrists. In fact, after a few moments she looked up at him, and met his eyes, which were then green, and comforted her in a manner that they truly should not have. They both knew that now, as a vampire, with his blood in her veins, it would have been easy for Mina to break the chains on her wrists, Mina knew even though he had not told her for she could feel the strength boiling in her blood, aching to be used. But she didn't. There was a question in his eyes, and she nodded, as though to say that she would obey him then, she would remain where he left her until he returned for her. But still she would not apologize for what she had done. She may have lost some of her free will, but she still had pride.

The Count was back in the library sooner than Jonathan had expected. He knew better than to ask what he had done to Mina, though the question was on the tip of his tongue and it would have been so easy to shout it out angrily. Jonathan had the feeling that, with the Count as angry as he was then, yelling at him would not have amused him. And so he remained silent as the Count began to speak angrily. "I have been far easier on you than I have been on Mina, and you have repaid me by declaring your intention to murder me yourself! Be assured that I shall no longer be so lenient in the future. Come here."

That last was a command, and one which Jonathan did not wish to obey, but he did, remembering how a few nights ago the Count had flaunted the fact that he held enough control over Mina that he could command her not to open her eyes without giving a reason for it and she would obey him. It seemed the Count had gotten to that point with Jonathan as well, or something very close to it.

As soon as Jonathan got up and stepped hesitantly toward the Count, he was pulled against the other vampire so that their bodies were pressed against each other. "You are mine, Jonathan," the Count whispered, "and you have been mine since the moment you stepped into this castle, since the moment you gave in to me and my other Fledglings. I will do with you as I please, and I expect you not to resist or rebel."

With that, the Count began to unbutton Jonathan's clothes and quickly made short work of the rest of his clothes as well. And after that it all became a mixture of pain and unwilling pleasure.

Arthur, Jack and Quincey left the room soon before the Count and Mina did. For some reason, they could find Lucy easily, almost as though they could sense her presence. Though, actually, considering the circumstances, that was not such a ridiculous idea. None of them made any attempt to go anywhere else but back to Lucy. They all wanted to see her again, and after all, where could they go? When they got to Lucy, she was angry and knew already what had happened – Jack imagined that the Count had some way of telling her such things – and her anger was far more intimidating than any of them had expected from Lucy. Whenever Jack had imagined her upset, it had been bursting into tears which, while a painful thought at the time, was certainly not as terrifying as the sight of the vampire woman baring her fangs and warning them never to do such things again. She bit them all then, without much warning, and though there was a strange sort of pleasure in it, it was awful for Jack to watch Arthur and Quincey being bitten, and it was also quite terrible to feel so weak and helpless. But it was probably worse when afterwards Lucy said, her voice far too cheerful, "Now that's settled, and we can go out hunting! I'm sure all of you will enjoy it!"

They could do nothing but follow her, even when they knew that she intended for them to murder. She was their Lucy. They had to follow her.

It was four days and four nights that Mina was left alone in the dungeon, and by the end of that time she was so consumed by hunger that she could barely think of anything else. It burned within her veins with every moment, a very real pain, both physical and within her. Many times she screamed with it, despite herself, and on the second night she pulled the chains fastened around her wrists out of the wall, more instinctively than for any other reason. Quickly, though, the hunger made her too weak to break open the door to the cell, even if she had wanted to, so she merely collapsed on the floor and stayed there, feeling incapable of doing anything else, waiting for the Count to return, knowing that she would at that moment do anything for blood.

The, finally, on the fourth night, she heard his footsteps. She scrambled to her knees, all thoughts of pride forgotten, the scent of his blood painfully distinct even when he was still on the stairs. Her first instinct was to lunge at him the moment he unlocked the cell door and to bite him, but that was quickly overpowered by the memory of his hand yanking her head back by the hair, of his touch on her body, of his voice ordering her to obey him. As so her next instinct was to debase herself before him, to beg at his knees for his blood.

And this instinct was the one she gave into.

She kept her head down as his footsteps grew closer and she heard a key in the lock of the door to the cell. Then the Count stepped inside, and she saw only his boots and the hem of his cloak. She clutched at the latter, begging him, "Please, my Lord, I'm sorry for what I did, I should never have said such things, I never shall again, but please, I need blood…I shall do anything, you can do anything to me, I am yours body and mind and soul and you can command me as you wish, Master…"

She didn't see him recoil at the term, didn't know that it was what his other brides called him, the ones he had discarded after not much time. She didn't notice that the shoulder strap of her dress had fallen down, baring her shoulder, nor that her fangs were extended. Her only thought was of how close his blood was, how easily he could give it to her, how far she needed to give up her pride in order to assuage that thirst.

He lifted her chin, meeting her eyes and said, almost kindly, "That is not necessary, my dear." Then he helped her to her feet and took the remnants of the chains from her wrists as she whispered her thanks before biting his wrist and putting to her lips, letting her drink hungrily. It was several minutes until he pulled his wrist away before she drank too much of his blood, and in that time he had put an arm around her, holding her close to him. And, had Jonathan seen her then, her mouth smeared with blood and her eyes flushed with passion, he would not have recognized her. In fact, he might have mistaken her for another woman, one who he had considered a demon and disdained.

After that, the days and nights seemed to fall into some sort of pattern for all of them. Mina was left with the other of the Count's brides during the time he did not spend with her. Though when first left with them she curled up in a corner of the room and did not speak to them, it didn't take long for her to become comfortable enough in their presence. After all, in the end there wasn't so much difference between them.

She was rarely allowed to see Jonathan, and when she was they spent the time holding hands and barely even attempting to make conversation. There was too much that they could not speak of, for even the things that they had once enjoyed talking about together had to be avoided, as they reminded them both too much of their old life, and the one they thought they were going to live. Jonathan spent much of the time he was not with Mina in the library. But sometimes that, too, hurt because he knew Mina would enjoy spending time there.

Jonathan, Arthur, Quincey and Jack were eventually all allowed to leave the Castle to feed, though normally with Lucy or the Count with them. It took them some time to get used to killing humans every night, but they did so, though perhaps thoughts of those they had killed still troubled them during the day before they fell to sleep. Mina however, was not allowed to leave, and drank only from the Count. Her constant imprisonment did not seem to bother her, and instead she appeared relieved that she at least did not have to kill.

Lucy divided her attentions between Jack, Quincey and Arthur quite cheerfully, an arrangement to which they became accustomed, though were never quite comfortable with. Arthur could not help thinking of her as his wife, though they had never actually been married, Quincey said that it was only right for Lucy to choose one man, despite the fact that they all loved her, and Jack was quietly bothered by it, though didn't dare say anything. But Jack spent much time in the library, as Jonathan did, trying to find out all possible ways to destroy a vampire, though when that failed he read books on medicine, remembering that he once had been a Doctor.

Mina became almost content in the time she spent with the Count. Much of the time he was kind to her, and sometimes he brought her to the library and read aloud to her there, and she could close her eyes and savor the sound of the words. During the day, when they all slept in coffins, she shared his and he always had an arm around her then. Once, in that comforting and claustrophobic darkness, he had even told her that he loved her, and though he couldn't possibly have seen, she smiled.

Professor Abraham Van Helsing had finally reached the castle of Count Dracula. Immediately after receiving Jack Seward's telegram he had rushed over to Carfax Asylum, and upon finding that Jack too had disappeared, he began to do all the research he could into Lucy and Mina and Jonathan and eventually found out about Jonathan's connection to the Count. After that it took him some time to find out the location of the Count's castle, and more time to actually get there. But he finally had gotten there, carrying a hammer and stake, and was prepared to do the bloody work that awaited him.

It took about an hour to find the location of the coffins. When he did, though, he was despite himself slightly intimidated by the fact that six coffins were there, and three to one side. But he went to the one directly in front of him, and opened.

Inside of it was Quincey Morris, Lucy's Texan suitor. Muttering a prayer for his soul, Van Helsing placed the stake over his heart and hammered it in.

Blood came from the body, splattering Van Helsing, but he had dealt with worse and went on to the coffin next to Quincey's. Inside of that was Lucy, as beautiful as she had been in life, and it took several moments for Van Helsing to gather himself enough to place the stake over her heart. When she was dead and her immortal soul freed, Van Helsing had to turn away immediately so as not to see her in that state.

When he opened the next coffin he found Dracula himself, with a dark haired woman who he presumed to be Mina Harker curled up next to him. The Count had an arm around her in sleep, a gesture which incidentally protected her from Van Helsing's stake. But he would worry about that after killing the Count. Van Helsing placed the stake over the Count's heart and brought the hammer down.

At that very moment Mina Harker's eyes opened and she grabbed Van Helsing, seemingly out of instinct. The last thing Van Helsing felt was Mina's fangs in his neck.

They were all woken up by Mina's scream she realized what had just happened and flung Van Helsing's body aside before curling back up in the coffin next to the Count's body. Everyone still living got out of their coffins immediately, shocked upon seeing what happened and talking quietly with one another while trying to understand the way events had proceeded. Then they all had to mourn over Lucy and Quincey's bodies. No one, not even Jonathan or the Count's brides, dared approach the Count's body and Mina, who lay crying next to it in the coffin.

It was several hours until Jonathan went to Mina, helping her out of the coffin gently and beginning to lead her away, saying, "He's dead. We're free now, Mina."

The others followed them out of the castle, and into the setting sun.


End file.
